Words from WW Blog

WORDS FROM W.W.                                                  April 12, 2020

                          The Disciples socially distanced themselves on that Resurrection Sunday, but Jesus came to them and said: “Peace be with you!”

Photo by Kaique Rocha on Pexels.com

This is the first Easter Sunday in who knows how long…maybe ever!…that I have not been in a church building for the celebration of the resurrected Christ. I was even at the morning worship service of Central Baptist Church in Winchester, Kentucky on Easter Sunday before I was born…since my birthday is May 5!

In my childhood years, my family would always travel to Paintsville, Kentucky for Easter weekend and go to the church that my aunts attended. I don’t remember anything about Jesus on those days, but I’ll never forget that the church gave each kid an Easter basket.

And then forty years in ministry as a pastor! Easter meant a Sunrise Service, an Easter Breakfast, and then a worship service punctuated with hallelujahs and amens.

It’s weird sitting in front of my laptop and listening to someone sitting all by himself in a room far away proclaiming that Jesus rose from the dead.

This Easter I find myself identifying with Jesus’ disciples, gathered in a room with the door locked because of their fear (John 20:19) Today we worship remotely because of the virus that has claimed numerous lives. Our stay-at-home worship, however, is more because of the urgency of keeping people safe, rather than fear…although, there is the simmering of fear in each of us.

But the thing is, the resurrected Jesus came and stood in the midst of that room on the evening of that Sunday and He said to His disciples “Peace be with you!” He showed them his hands and the wound in his side just so they wouldn’t have any doubts about who He was. In that room, the disciples experienced the joy of new life, new hope, and an understanding of how things had suddenly been changed…for the better!

Now I sit in front of my AirBook, pecking out these words, and knowing that Jesus conquered death despite the fact that I’m not sitting in a church pew. Our current limitations do not limit Him. I may be cocooning this morning behind a closed door (Especially since it’s below freezing outside!), but I know that Jesus opened the tomb.

Perhaps this Resurrection Sunday, with its different feel, will create a new peace in our souls that Jesus is always with us. 

This entry was posted on April 12, 2020 at 1:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.